Resurrecting London's brewing past

London's biggest privately owned brewer, the Meantime Brewing Company of Greenwich, announced on Friday (April 4th) a historic deal with the Greenwich Foundation to excavate, renovate and recommence brewing at one of London's oldest brewing sites at the old Naval College in Greenwich. Building work has commenced at Greenwich's World Heritage Site as part of a �5m project. Pictured right: Alastair Hook, Managing Director and head brewer of Meantime and Helen Beioley, a Director of the Greenwich Foundation, don hard-hats to examine the newly excavated site.

The brewery is part of the redevelopment of the Old Royal Naval College visitor centre - Discover Greenwich - a new interpretation and education centre for the whole Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Discover Greenwich will be located in the Pepys Building which was built in the 1870's and lies adjacent to the brewery. The brewery will form the centerpiece of a new Meantime brasserie and bar and have its own exhibition charting the history of brewing in London and Greenwich.

There was a brewery on the site from 1717 until around 1860. Its function was to supply the retired and injured seafarers, inmates of the Royal Hospital, with their daily ration of beer. The current building was built in 1831, substantially altered in 1843 and subsequently all but demolished. Once a large, three storey building, all that remains today is a single storey block with a series of vaults below. The structure of the building includes rare examples of fish bellied beams made of cast iron. A series of interlinking vaults of the 1830s has been revealed, including the cast iron head of a well (left), thought to be 200 ft deep.

The Meantime Brewery will produce its own London Porter that will replicate the beer produced by the brewery in the early 18th century. The project will be the only one of its kind in the UK. The defining character of these beers would have driven by Brettanomyces yeasts and Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria harboured in the pores of the wooden Tuns used to store the beer. The beers would have been stored for a minimum of 12 months'

Meantime Brewmaster Alastair Hook explains the motivation behind this project. "The area of London between Bow, Shoreditch, Greenwich and up to and including stretches of the Southwark banks of the Thames, were the centre of the brewing world in the eighteenth century. London is the home of India Pale Ale, Porter and Stout but - in time honoured British tradition - we have allowed this rich heritage to be forgotten. Meantime and the Greenwich Foundation are determined to change this.

"The pubs and breweries in our capital were once the envy of the world and in terms of commercial, industrial and social importance their impact was immense. The brewery exhibit and Meantime brewhouse, along with the cellars and bar will do everything possible to recapture and present the visitor with the full glory of this fascinating age."